Art of Supply

"When you call it a pilot, we realized that it basically puts a label on it so that it's not on the critical path. It's not actually real work." - Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Atlas Robotics
Warehouses are not easy places to work - for people or for robots. Pallet labels end up on the wrong corner. Someone leaves an empty pallet in the middle of the floor. The plan changes 30 seconds after it's made. In a warehouse, exception is the rule, and that's why most warehouses are still unautomated despite decades of progress in robotics.
In this episode, I speak with Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Atlas Robotics, about what physical AI changes, and why the way companies test warehouse robots may be setting them up to fail before they start.
LIsten in to hear Çetin and Kelly Barner discuss,
- Why physical AI is more than a new name for traditional automation
- The ordinary warehouse moments that people handle without thinking, and that robots find hardest
- Why Atlas runs "probation" deployments instead of pilots, and how success is defined before day one
Links:
Çetin Meriçli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cetinmericli/ 
Atlas Robotics: https://www.atlas-robotics.com/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"Decisions regarding specific authorizations will not be made publicly available." — U.S. Commerce Department, Connected Vehicle Rule
Two cars come off the same assembly line in South Carolina. They have the same software stack, according to the company that builds one of them. Starting with model year 2027, the Volvo EX90 can keep being sold in the United States. The Polestar 3 can't.
Both companies are owned by China's Geely. Commerce won't say why one passed and one failed, and under its own rule, it doesn't have to.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
- Why the auto supply chain's dependence on China is so hard to unwind, from the hardware all the way down to the source code
- How two companies under the same Chinese parent got opposite answers from Washington
- Why Ford's China-built Lincoln Nautilus suddenly didn't need permission, and what Congress wants to do next
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"Am I just making worse decisions way more quickly than I ever would before, and they're compounding and driving me down the wrong path?" – Russell Halper, Founder & Managing Director, Insight Kitchen
Supply chain should be AI's ideal proving ground. It has plenty of data, plenty of decisions, and plenty of problems no one has solved. So why did a recent AI conference with 11,000 attendees have only three talks about supply chain?
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly talks with Russell Halper, Founder & Managing Director of Insight Kitchen, about the gap between AI's highlight reel and what it takes to get results inside a physical network. Russell has spent his career at the intersection of data science and supply chain. 
Listen to this episode to hear:
- Why a forecast has to beat a human planner, while an agent only has to come close
- What makes supply chain harder for AI than writing code or email
- How to build an AI roadmap around mile markers rather than a destination
Links:
Russell Halper on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellhalper/ 
Insight Kitchen: https://insightkitchen.ai/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"We are working this case, but no trucks were stolen. Just the cargo." — Montclair, California Police Department
On August 17th, someone with fake paperwork walked into an Anheuser-Busch distribution center in Montclair, California, and was handed a load of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Nobody broke in. Nobody stole a truck.
One hour later, they did it again - same process, same warehouse.
Within weeks, Pabst had a countdown clock, their CEO on TikTok, a $20,000 reward, and a sympathetic comment from KitKat. It's a great story. It's also an example of the logistics-based crime that cost shippers in the U.S. and Canada nearly $725 Million last year.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers:
- Why almost nothing in the Montclair pickup belonged to Pabst: not the building, not the truck, not the handoff
- How strategic cargo theft works, and why Pabst is in increasingly crowded company
- Whether a viral campaign should turn cargo theft into a punchline 
Links:
Inside the Rise of Cargo Theft (AOS, September 2026): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-inside-the-rise-of-cargo-theft 
Tracking the Logistics of a $400K Lobster Heist (AOS, January 2026): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-tracking-the-logistics-of-a-400k-lobster-heist 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"IEEPA, in many ways, I called it the sledgehammer. It was like everything, everywhere, all at once." - Jeff Rittener, International Trade and Compliance Advisor, Rittener Trade Services
For more than 30 years, Jeff Rittener, International Trade and Compliance Advisor at Rittener Trade Services, built and led Intel's global trade organization.
Now he has his own consulting practice and podcast, Rittener Reflections, and is a Member of the Tesari AI National Security Council.
In this episode, Jeff walks Kelly Barner through the legal tools behind the current wave of tariffs, and what happens when one of them gets struck down by the Supreme Court.
LIsten in to hear Jeff and Kelly explore:
- Why the Supreme Court ruled the administration's IEEPA tariffs illegal, and what replaced them within hours
- Why Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs are built to last while others aren't
- The 1930s law now being used to hit Canada with a 50 percent tariff, and why one company is already relocating production because of it
- Why the IEEPA refund process favors large companies like Apple and Amazon over small importers
Links:
Jeff Rittener on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrittener/ 
Rittener Reflections Podcast: https://rittenerreflections.com/ 
No Trade Is Free, Robert Lighthizer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063282135?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe